Emu reunited with owner after escaping from pen and travelling around Suffolk for 12 miles

The bird was on the loose for five hours before being spotted and captured in a garden ten miles away

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BY ROB PATTINSON

4th August 2016, 2:24 am

Updated: 4th August 2016, 4:06 am

AN emu sulks behind bars yesterday after his desperate bid for freedom was dashed.

The unnamed male bird fled its farm before leaping out at stunned families in a nearby village and bringing traffic to a halt by darting across a road.

Cheeky grin ... Emu after being captured

Just five hours after the creature jumped its 4ft pen, the bird was spotted by villagers and a Sun reporter in a garden ten miles away.

Two samaritans ushered the bird into a stable near their homes with a bucket of horse feed and called owner Bernard King who loaded the fugitive into his trailer.

The retired cattle farmer, 73, who keeps emus as pets, said: "I didn't realise he had gone until I counted the emus in the paddock.

"He had no reason to run away he has a good life here and is very happy.

"I don't know why he would he would runaway - he has everything he wants here. I can only think that he was spooked by a fox - we have got them plenty of them round here.

On the loose ... photo of the Emu taken by neighbour Susan Clarke before being caught

Reunited ... Emu and farmer Bernard King

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“He must have been so scared that he jumped the fence which is nearly four feet high.

"But once out in the wild it would have been almost impossible to catch him - you would have to get him in a corner and herd him into a trailer which would be impossible if he was in the middle of a corn field or a wood.

"I am just so grateful for everyone’s help.”

Emu stretches its legs in owner's back garden

Bird catchers Susan Clarke and Julie Monk with the Emu

Go to your room ... Emu arrives home

Susan Clark , 66, who helped find the bird said: "I couldn't believe it when I turned into a narrow lane and saw this thing coming towards me. It looked more scared than I was.

"I called my friend Julie who lives nearby and has stables and we managed to shepherd the emu into her yard with some hurdles and tempted it into an empty stable with a bucket of feed."

Co-catcher Julie Monk, 64, added: "We are just glad that he has survived his ordeal and been re-united with his owner."

Mr King has bred a flock of six emus at his farm in Whepstead, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, for a year.